The name of the mountain did cross my mind - briefly - and I quickly dismissed it as me being paranoid.
However - it did kind of live up to it's slightly troublesome moniker - in that it dealt us some pretty interesting weather to deal with - which made the hike a little challenging and the ride home pretty hairy.
Hex Mountain is just outside Roslyn, which in turn is a little further on from Cle Elum - which for those not from these parts, translates to about 2 and a bit hours east of Seattle.
It's a 7 mile snowshoe trail through some very very pretty scenery; alternating wide open snow fields and sparse pine tree clusters. The beginning of the trail is brutal - all uphill - not much relief - up an old logging road. Thank goodness it is so beautiful - for that kept this out of shape Limey going. Well - that and watching our daffy dog either eating snow, trying to shake it off his paws or following the trails of various woodland creatures at full tilt!
Needless to say we did not reach the summit - but the time we had hiked for just over an hour uphill - the wind picked up and it started to snow pretty hard. That in itself was not really a problem - but when we crested a ridge and Mikey said he couldn't really see where the trail continued - I decided that my comfort level had been reached and we turned back.
Must have been some internal warning system as by the time we got back to the car and on the road - it was virtual whiteout conditions and Snoqualmie Pass was a skating rink. We took full advantage of all three lanes of freeway a couple of times - taking the less conventional sideways route across them - but thanks to some nifty steering by my hero of a husband - we avoided any stationery objects. We didn't talk much on the way home! We did however crack open a cool one as soon as we got back home safely!
We will do Hex again - next time to the summit as it has stunning views by all accounts.
The pics tell the story quite well I think!
We have our first tomato....woo hooo!!! It's our first attempt at growing edible plants in our new garden. We agonized for far too long over the placement of our tomato pot but I think we got it just right. Thanks to my green-fingered Vati-bobs, I have now learned about pinching out rogue shoots, limiting flower 'sets', feeding once the fruit is set and weeding out superfluous foliage. And apparently tomatoes are supposed to be one of the easiest veggies to grow........ yikes!
It was a long, hard winter and it felt like it would never end - but one sunny morning in April (has it really been that long since I last Blogged?) the crocuses finally forced their way through the rock hard earth to add a splash of colour to the garden. Despite having owned a garden for most of my adult life I am still learning the nuances and tricks of the trade. When I planted my bulbs a year last winter I made two bad decisions; I chose spots with too little sun for my miniature daffodils and some of my crocuses. The result, as you can see was sad, withdrawn blooms in the shade and happy sun drenched flowers on the right! Live and learn!
Although she was only a couple of days past her due date - it felt to all of us - but especially poor Jenni - as if she would NEVER show her face! But she did! On February 15th - a nearly Valentine girly - but not quite.
..the couch is dead, the couch is dead. 
......all those time honoured British traditions; figgy pudding - with lashings of brandy butter, custard and cream...mmmmmmmmmmm; multiple crackers - all with the same jokes inside; and crowds galore. Technically we started the 'crowd' part at the beginning of our journey - at the airport in Seattle - which had become a mammouth labyrinth of queues due to the uncooperative weather. Miraculously - and we still have no idea why or how it happened - our flight left - albeit 3 hours late - but it left. Our travel Fairy obviously put in a little overtime during the festive season.
